E.G. Daily — the Voice of Tommy Pickles! — Opens Up About Her Career and the 'Rugrats' Cast

More than 30 years after Rugrats made its television debut, the voice of Tommy Pickles is reflecting on her life, her quirky and colorful career — and the audition that started it all.

The prolific voice actress E.G. Daily, 60, tells PEOPLE she "almost didn't go" to her first voice-over audition because she had never done that type of work before.

Daily's wide-ranging career includes her leading role on Rugrats, as well as playing Babe in Babe: Pig In The City, Dottie in Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Buttercup in The Powerpuff Girls. But none of that would've happened if an agent hadn't approached her in the 80s after she performed in a play.

In the play, the actress portrayed a woman who ages from a child to an adult, so her voice had to change throughout the role — and it was her vocal range that caught the attention of the agent, who later sent her to audition at Nickelodeon.

"All of the sudden, I was acting on eight-to-10 different series a week," says Daily, who then landed the Rugrats role. "That one decision to say 'yes' changed the course of my life."

"None of us expected it to become anything," says Daily of her fellow costars on the Emmy-winning tv series. "One of the most beautiful things about Rugrats is we were just living life together. It was such a magical show because we all grew up together."

She and her castmates have remained close friends, making the show's 2021 reboot for its 30th anniversary all the more special. "We're a family, just like Rugrats," she says.

"He was a magical, quirky, interesting, and a most breathtaking man from the inside out," she posted last year, alongside a photo of them together.

Eleven years after his death, Daily found love again with poker player Rick Salomon. The couple married in Las Vegas five weeks after they met and had two daughters — Hunter, 26, and Tyson, 23. They divorced in 2000. Salomon went on to date Paris Hilton, and in a Hollywood-worthy twist, Daily was cast in the 2006 film National Lampoon's Pledge This! alongside the heiress.

Daily also turned her life into a one-woman show, Listen Closely!, which she released on Amazon in 2015. "Bringing back certain moments were so painful that I would just sit there and cry," says Daily about revisiting Hexum's death for the project.

She credits her director Sal Romeo with helping her learn how to better cope with the loss, and the show became a cathartic experience for her.

"I was able to reenact moments that were so crazy painful, and feel them," she says. "That was really powerful."

Daily's one-woman show was just one example of the many unexpected moments in her career. There was also an appearance in Rod Stewart's Young Turks video in 1981.

"I was in Las Vegas backstage at a Pia Zadora concert and Kenny Ortega walked up to me and asked if I wanted to be in a music video," she recalls. "Then he told me it was for Rod Stewart! Rod was one of my favorite artists and a raspy-voiced singer like me! It was amazing synchronicity."

Four decades later she credits it all to saying "yes" to that first audition.

"Strange, little opportunities that appear out of the blue are really like fate, and I'm always open to fate," Daily says. "They say miracles don't happen in comfort zones, so I always try to do things a little off the beaten path and then miracles happen."

Ten all-new episodes of Rugrats will be available to stream on Paramount+ on Friday, April 15.